The first show, in Boston, is already confirmed. We’ve signed the contracts and everything. Registration isn’t open yet, and won’t be until early January, so you have plenty of time to get the budget approval and be ready to sign up as soon as seats go on sale. Like I said, early January. A more specific date will most likely emerge near the end of December.

You’re going to want to get geared up for this, because the speaker list is flat-out amazing:

Honestly, I can hardly wait to hear everyone on the list. Well, except me. I hear me all the time. But everyone else? Total gold!

Note that this is the speaker list for Boston; the other cities will have different lineups. Obviously not 100% different, but I expect each one will be fairly different. Still awesome, of course.

So what are we going to cover? Best practices. That’s really what it’s all about, whether we’re dissecting code or talking about usability or whatever. Jeffrey and I are going to push every last speaker to pack their talks with insights regarding the current state of the art in their respective fields. We’re going to push ourselves twice as hard to do the same. What we want is to have everyone walk out saying, “Now I know where things are and where they’re going”.

The size of the event will increase along with the days, from our usual 100 seats to 400 or so. AEA is now, as I said, a full-on conference. It’s a big step, but it’s the right one. The most common feedback from this year’s attendees was that one day just wasn’t enough, and looking back, we have to agree. That’s especially true given that the feedback from our only two-day event of 2006 indicated that people really liked the length and the amount of information they got out of it. So it’s time to step up.

Even from this side of the Atlantic, I hear the cries of our European brethren. When will we visit your worthy shores? It’s a fair question. It could happen in 2007, or it might not be until 2008. How’s that for precise? I’m sorry, but I can’t do any better than that right now. Our original plan had been to run a year’s worth of events to shake out the bugs and then look to other lands. Instead, we discovered that the events were too small, temporally speaking, and needed to be dramatically revamped.

So now we need to run a few of the larger events to get the bugs worked out before going afield. The good news is that a lot of the bugs are already smoothed out. We just need to get a handle on the larger format, which has a whole new set of requirements.

So we’ll be at the Boston Marriott Copley Place at the end of March. I hope you’ll be there too! (And if you are going to be there and are a member at Upcoming, add yourself to the listing. Otherwise, feel free to leave a comment here. Thanks!)

What a great lineup! I love the move to make AEA a full-on conference. Being a part of a one-day event (Philly) as well as the two-day (NYC), I can say that the two-day event was much more fulfilling (even though both times left me wanting more!). Can’t wait for Boston!

Brendan: I wish I could say, but it’s on the same level as the European dates—something we hope to do, but can’t commit to right now. I absolutely want to bring an event home, and there may be other ways to bring AEA to Cleveland in the next year or so, but again, I can’t really say for sure right now. Man, it’s frustrating to have to say that! But worse than being vague is making promises I might have to break later on.

Jeff wrote in to say...

Rich: see, that’s why I don’t want to promise anything. I very heavily implied that coming to Southern California was all but a done deal to a number of people, but in the end we had to pass because we were unable to find a good venue for the one-day, 100-seat events we’d been doing. Now that we’re moving up in size, it should be a good deal easier to find places that will work. Who knows? Maybe the October 2007 event will move from San Francisco to San Diego. Maybe we’ll schedule SoCal for mid-2008. Anything’s possible. Meantime, if you want to get in on the fun before then, we are at least coming to California next year.

Jeff: as was announced over at aneventapart.com, Chicago’s on the list and is currently slated for August 2007 (but bear in mind that’s no more than tentative).

I never explicitly said that Dan was at fault for the ridiculously high $795-$995 registration charge.

Now you’re a kind, sharing, and good man who has spread much information for the benefit of all, but for future reference, please refrain telling me what to write, and where. In other words, get your head out of your ass, and try to have a nice day.

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